SG Curbstone Valley Rowena 3*M 3*D AR 2995

Royalia’s kids are named after legendary ancient Britons. Rowena is named after the daughter of Hengist, a 5th Century Anglo-Saxon Chief, and the wife of king Vortigern, of Kent.

When Rowena’s dam, Castle Rock Royalia, kidded in 2014 with quadruplets, we were very excited to see that two of them were doelings.

As soon as Rowena was born, there was no question that she would be retained. She looked like a carbon-copy, albeit in miniature, of her dam. She’s very long, very level, and elegant in appearance, with a long and graceful neck, and has almost identical coloring to her dam. 

Although her dam, Royalia, was lacking in body capacity and dairy strength at this age, Rowena has shown significant improvement in both. Her withers are slightly sharper than her dam’s, and she also has more brisket extension, while retaining Royalia’s length of body, and the excellent width between her ribs, and hocks.

Rowena’s first freshening udder has been impressive. Structurally her udder has more width and rear udder height than her dam, with a stronger medial. However, it is Rowena’s udder capacity as a first freshener than has been most impressive.

At almost every show Rowena has attended as a first freshener, the judges have come back to clarify that she is indeed “just a first freshener?”. At just 13 days fresh, kidding with twin does, Rowena produced more than four and a half pounds of milk on her first milk test. 

Rowena’s production peaked in her first lactation at 5.7 lbs per day, easily out-milking all of our first fresheners this season, and during her last milk test of the season, at 287 days fresh, she actually out-milked her fourth-freshening dam, still producing 3.5 lbs of milk on that test. Rowena ended her first lactation producing 1,160 lbs of milk.

2017 was Rowena’s year to shine. At Linear Appraisal in June she earned VEEE 90 as a second freshener, and her appraiser remarked that Rowena “hits the sweet spot in dairyness”. Always the bridesmaid, and never the bride, at the end of the same month she earned her first GCH ribbon in the show ring.

When the December production evaluations were released, Rowena found herself on the USDA Elite Doe list, the first of our home-bred does to do so, and also was awarded her Superior Genetics designation from ADGA.

No doe is perfect, however, and if I had to be critically honest, despite the improvements in udder structure, and capacity, I would like to see improved teat placement, and will be looking for that in her offspring. Her teats are positioned more cranial than I would prefer, despite the improvement in medial strength. Otherwise, I really love the direction this doe is heading in.

Along with the improvements in capacity and production, Rowena is also clearly showing some improvements in overall general appearance, and we’re very much looking forward to watching her continue to mature in 2017 throughout her second lactation.